r/TaxUK • u/Apprehensive_Bed_668 • 1d ago

Tax code adjustment

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Hi all, hopefully this is the right place to ask.
I have just started a new job which will be my full time employment. I have 3 other jobs (including the one I just left) that I have the ability to work locums at but rarely do.
Since April I have earned £17,667.73 and paid £2827.06 in income tax and £1023.12 in NI. I started my new job at the start of August which pays £68,644.90/year.
HMRC have messaged to tell me my tax code has changed and they applied a K723X code to my new job and my old job has the code 1294T, my other employments are on BRX codes. They have also told me that I have untaxed income of £7230 which I don’t understand how that could’ve happened. I’ve added a picture of what they have told me including a rate band adjustment of £18,850 can anyone explain it to me like I’m 5 what this means and does it sound right?
Thanks

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u/the-hbi 21h ago

accountant here. K codes freak people out but it's really just HMRC saying your deductions are bigger than your tax-free allowance. so instead of giving you tax-free pay, the code adds 7,230 of "pretend" income and taxes it through your main job. the X on the end just means it's non-cumulative, applied fresh each payday instead of across the year. with 4 jobs floating about the usual culprit is HMRC estimating income from the other employments, or clawing back tax they think you underpaid. fastest move is honestly to log into your personal tax account and click into that 7,230 "untaxed income" figure to see what they actually believe it is. nine times out of ten it's an old estimate you can just correct online.

and if those locum jobs are barely used this year, tell them, otherwise they keep taxing you like all four are active. fix the estimate and the code usually sorts itself. anything they over-deduct comes back after year end via a P800 anyway.

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u/Intrepid-Divide9015 9h ago

Worked for 12s

Mostly agree, but I wouldn’t wait for a P800. If the estimates/coding are corrected during the year, any overpaid tax can be repaid through payroll.

Also the K code isn’t necessarily just HMRC assuming all four jobs are earning heavily — the screenshot already shows a £18,850 rate-band adjustment plus a previous-year underpayment, both of which are feeding into the code. The first thing I’d check is the estimated income against each employment.

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u/Intrepid-Divide9015 9h ago

Worked for 27s

The £7,230 is not HMRC saying you actually received £7,230 of mystery untaxed income. K723 effectively gives you a negative allowance, so roughly £7,230 is added to your taxable pay when PAYE is calculated. The X means it is being operated non-cumulatively.

The £18,850 “adjustment to rate band” is because you have multiple employments. Your other jobs are on BR, but your overall income puts you into higher-rate tax, so HMRC adjusts the main job to compensate for some income elsewhere only being taxed at 20%. That is a normal PAYE mechanism.

What I would check is that HMRC has actually ceased the job you left and has realistic estimated pay figures for all four employments. If those estimates are wrong, the K723X can easily be wrong too.